Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

Heads up! I'm probably going to give some stuff away here but I have a lot to say.

Let's talk about Stephen King for a moment. I have a definite love/hate relationship with the man. I sometimes think that he is the most brilliant author alive today, especially when it comes to the Dark Tower series which may very well be the glue that holds the world together. However, he has a tendency to pull some cheap tricks that drive me mad. Example: An elderly gentleman tells a story to Eddie in this book about when he faced the Wolves. When he delivers the vital information to Eddie, he whispers it so the reader can't read it. When Eddie shares this information with Roland, again the reader doesn't see it. And that's cheap. Also, towards the end Roland pulls about three tie ins from other stories (two of which are not his) that almost made me throw the book. Also, there are characters in this book with accents you will not be able to understand. Even worse, you are going to start talking in the Calla accent. Be warned.

Despite all that, I couldn't put it down and you KNOW I'll be reading the rest of the series.

Anyway, we left off with the ka-tet wandering along the path of the beam. This book picks up in Calla Bryn Sturgis where most of the children are born as twins but every 20-25 years the mysterious wolves come out of the east and snatch one of every pair that is of appropriate age. The stolen children are sent back to Calla but they are sent back "roont." They are oversized and developmentally disabled. The town has allowed such behavior for a few generations but one farmer, Jeffords, has had enough. Luckily, they have received word of gunslingers.

Finally, we get to see the gunslingers at work. It's not all death and killing, you know, but a code of conduct and a proper way to ask for help. Roland, Susannah, Jake, Eddie, and Oi spend most of the book in preparation. They must gain the trust and respect of the townfolk. They must figure out as much as they can about the Wolves and how to kill them and then prepare the town for action. To complicate matters, Susannah is now aware that she is pregnant and that she is splitting into two personalities again. To complicate things even further, an ancient relic pops up that allows the ka-tet to go to New York where they discover that the rose is in danger and they must save that and Tower of Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind fame.

There really is a lot going on in this book. Sometimes King can get wordy in his longer novels but I don't think Wolves could have been a shorter book. It was exciting and it was good and I really can't wait to see what happens. As it is, I feel like I have run a marathon and I am glad for a little break!

Carrie by Stephen King

Carrie is the book that first got me really reading. I read it in junior high and I recall actually sitting in a pretty uncomfortable position for hours, devouring it page by page.

There is a danger in revisiting old literary loves. You never know if they are going to be quite like you remember. I wanted to reread this for a few reasons, though. I work with a few junior high girls that keep asking me for horror books. I've been getting into Stephen King a lot more recently. Also, I kind of wanted to know if it still stacked up.

I still love this book. It is decidedly juvenile and the first scene is kind of rough. It's embarrassing and harsh but it really sets the mood for the rest of the book. Even better, it is perfect to hook a twelve year old girl. I imagine that I related with Carrie when I was twelve. I felt like a loner and was hurt by the other kids. Then it was amazing (but still horrifying) to read about Carrie destroying the town, punishing the people who hurt her. Now that I am an "adult," I took something completely different from it. I felt bad for Carrie. I felt bad for the people who died, who never got to learn their lessons really. In today's world of school shootings this is a paranormal twist that might make kids think about violence differently.

For a first novel this is phenomenal and it's really not surprising that King developed into the author who brought us such masterpieces as The Stand, The Dark Tower, and The Green Mile.

Stephen King's The Stand: American Nightmares

Finally, I got it. I wish that I would have gotten it sooner because I would have blown through this book when it came for me three weeks ago. If you recall, I was slightly disappointed with the first in this series of graphic novels. It didn't feel right. I'm not sure what changed. Part of it, I think, is that I started watching the movie which is very different than the book and that made the graphic novel seem much more like the book.

This is how reading a graphic novel should be. While I was waiting for the computer at work to get on with something, I opened the book and read. In just a few moments I would be sucked into the story. In all fairness, the author does spend more time with each character instead of bouncing around every other page as in the first one. Also, I think that Flagg starts to look like I've always seen him: A sinister Chuck Noris.

I'm glad I gave the second book a chance. I've already ordered the third.

Stephen King's The Stand: Captain Trips by Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa

Due to my latest Stephen King craze, I decided one day to click around on his website and find a list of books by publication date. What I discovered was that there is a whole world of Stephen King that I didn't know about. That's how I found these graphic versions of the classic, which I read earlier this summer, The Stand.

Honestly, I'm not impressed.

Alright, so, The Stand. Well, I read the actual novel first. I read the original, not the uncut, version. I loved it. It took a while to get through because of its size but I loved it. Then I picked up the first graphic novel and it felt, well, wrong. I don't know if it was the story (which had to have been different from the original book and understandably) or the artwork. It just didn't feel right. Then I started the movie. I'm over halfway through and it seems better.

I ordered the second book just to see. As always, I'll let you know what I think.

Blaze by Stephen King, writting as Richard Bachman

Have we discussed my love of Stephen King before? I'm sure we have. I don't really know what it is about that man. His stories never cease to surprise me. I haven't met one that I didn't like. Also, I LOVE his introductions. He makes me want to write.

This is not your typical King book. From what I gather, it's not very Bachman either. It was meant to be a throwback to the noir crime but instead it ended up a "three hanky". The main character, Blaze, is a criminal but he wasn't always going to be one. He was a smart boy who loved to read but then his father threw him down the steps three times. Now that he is grown, he is a huge man with a dent in his forehead who seems to have not so many smarts. He is planning a kidnapping with his friend George, who is dead. Blaze still hears George though and spends most of the book trying to figure out if George is a part of him.

The chapters alternate between past and present. We see Blaze grow up and fall into one unfortunate trap after another. In the present, he begins planning the kidnapping and carries it out. By the end of the book, we cannot help but feel for Blaze. We see him as a consequnce of other's actions and his hard knock life. Inside he is a teddy bear who is more concerned in the end about the baby than about the money.

I loved this book. I even sat down and read for over two hours last night, a rarity for me. When I mentioned that I was reading it to my mother, she told me it was her favorite King and that I would love it. We read two different kinds of books, Mom and me, so this must be good all around.

The Green Mile by Stephen King

I kind of think that all of King's books should be released as serials. I love King's writing. In fact, at this point I don't think I've come across a book of his that I don't like. However, I have to admit that I haven't read a lot of them. They are so long that they look daunting. I would have read The Stand years ago if it had been a serial novel!

So, I read this in the six separate books (uping my book count for the year) but chose to review them as one large book.

Paul Edgecomb is old. He's really, really old. He's living in a home that his grandchildren have put him in and he is nagged by the memory of 1932, the year he was a supervisor on a death row block and a miracle occurred. A man accused of murdering two girls is sent to walk the green mile but John Coffey turns out to be nothing like he seems.

I really liked this book. I don't want to say too much because this set up lends itself to giving a lot away. It feels like every book has a climax and every climax is pertinent to the plot. I think that this is another pretty smart novel from King though, bringing to light racial issues and revolving around the theme of good and evil. I hope to watch the movie soon, which I've only seen parts of. Rest assured, the book was completely worth the time.

May 2011: The Stand

Books Read:
Coffey's Hands by Stephen King
Tender as Hellfire by Joe Meno
The Bad Death of Eduard deLacroix by Stephen King
The Stand by Stephen King

I only want to talk about The Stand this month as it took up the last two and a half weeks at least and I have a lot to say about it.

My copy is a used paperback with a great little reaction jotted on the inside cover. I love it. However, I did not realize that there was an extended edition until I had already started and it wasn't available at my library so I would have had to wait for a copy to come in and I was mostly ready to get going and take on the beast, if you will. At the start, 817 pages seemed like a daunting task and I didn't want to tackle the 1153 page uncut edition. I wonder if I will beat myself up over this choice forever and eventually give in and read the uncut edition.

I loved this book. King writes in such a way that 10 pages can feel like 40 but sometimes 40 can feel like 10. The first week was kind of rough. The book looked so big that I handled it much how I handle other tasks that seem daunting... Every time I caught sight of the book and thought that I should read a couple of pages I loaded up Facebook. It made the first week pretty slow but after that it seemed to stick.

The best part of this book is definitely the characters. King produces such a wide array of characters and they are all very well developed for their purpose. A lot of the bad guys seem more two dimensional than 3-D but it works for them. My boyfriend kept trying to convince me to watch the movie and at one point let it slip that Molly Ringwald plays Frannie. I never would have guessed that and it messed with my idea of Frannie for the rest of the book. However, I looked up the pictures of Harold Lauder and they were pretty right on.

Harold is a character that I want to talk a bit about. He reminded me of my ex who spent a lot of time feeling angry about things that had happened to him in high school. If he got off on a rant, he would grit his teeth and growl, "They'll pay! They'll all pay!" This was something that contributed to our eventual split. I was teased in school and instead of being angry and a little demented about the whole thing, I'm actually pretty thankful. I am who I am because of where I have been. I would totally end up on Mother Abigail's side.

I really think that King can be an actual literary author. This didn't feel like a novel of terror to me. Sure, there were some grisly parts (read: awesome but no decapitation) but this was about good vs. evil. Randall Flagg makes his appearance. Did you know he is in like 8 King books, and that doesn't include movies like Perfect Storm. Randall Flagg is ultimate evil. He is Legion, which is worth looking into when reading these deep Stephen King books.

My ruling on this one is that it was a great, if long, read. I loved the characters. (How is it that I wrote a whole blog without mentioning Nick or Stu or Ralph or Larry? I LOVED Larry!) There's even a cheat sheet to help you keep the characters straight online. I loved how the characters drove the plot. I loved imagining whether or not I could live in this world.

What a great way to spend 817 pages!

April 2011

BOOKS READ:
-American Vampire, vol. 1 by Stephen King
-Petite Suzanne by Marguerite de Angeli
-Labyrinth of Desire by Rosemary Sullivan
-Other People's Love Letters by Bill Shapiro
-Smashed by Koren Zalickas
-Peace and Plenty by Sarah Ban Breathnach
-Two Dead Girls by Stephen King
-My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster
-The Mouse on the Mile by Stephen King
-Orchids on Your Budget by Marjorie Hillis

10 books! 10 books in one month! Anyone would consider that impressive.

Okay, you busted me. I've been reading Stephen King's The Green Mile in its original form, the series. I started this purely because I wanted to up my book count and that is probably cheating but I've decided that every Stephen King novel needs to be made into a mini-series. I love Stephen King but so many of his books are large enough to be downright daunting. Proof? The Stand has been in my stack of books to read for nearly a year. I just keep moving it instead of reading it. If it were in handy installments it would be done by now. American Vampire is an graphic novel co-written by King that takes place in the old west and in Hollywood. I liked it but it was pretty standard.

It was a really weird reading month. I can't quite figure out how to tackle this list!

I read two books about love this month, Other People's Love Letters and Labyrinth of Desire. Other People's Love Letters was a collection of love letters (Imagine!) similar to Post Secret. They were sometimes silly, sometimes dirty, sometimes heart wrenching. The whole experience made me wonder if I would someday regret not writing a love letter. Labyrinth of Desire was a study in obsessive love. Sullivan starts her study with a story and then breaks it down into pieces which she analyzes. It was a surprisingly good read and I am not doing it justice.

I read two memoirs this month as well. My Fair Lazy is by our good friend Jen Lancaster. I've read the rest of her memoirs and they were all great. Bright Lights, Big Ass may be my favorite. This could come in second. Jen embarrasses herself at a party and realizes that doing something like that could jeopordize her career as an author. She decides to set about culturing herself up. She takes cooking lessons and goes to the theater and opera and museums and it is ALWAYS a good time. My favorite part was when she went to China Town and was horrified of bringing home a gremlin. Smashed, the second memoir was a good read but ticked me off in a number of ways. Like, the author is constantly talking about how typical her experience with alcohol is but I, for one, have never had my stomach pumped and certainly not at age 16. Mostly, it gave me some great drinking game ideas.

There were two personal finance books this month too, but I'll spare you the details. To sum them up, Peace and Plenty brought me no peace at all while I found 1937's Orchids on Your Budget both entertaining and useful. How could you now with such chapters as "Well, Who isn't Poor?" and "Can You Afford a Husband?"

May is already nearly two weeks gone. (Better late than never!) I can promise that it won't be as productive as April. I am nearly three books into the month and the next book is a doozy! Wish me luck and HAPPY READING!